The present invention is in the field of agricultural equipment and is more specifically directed to a seedling transplanter for automatically depositing seedlings in a furrow and closing the soil of the furrow over the root clumps of the seedlings.
A wide variety of crops are started in nurseries under ideal controlled conditions to provide robust seedlings which are then set out in fields for growth to maturity. The seedlings are often sold in large lots consisting of many thousands of plants and it is consequently essential that the transplanting operation be effected as quickly as possible in order to minimize the loss of plants both before and after the transplanting operation. In the past, this procedure has necessitated the employment of large numbers of laborers in order to expedite the transplanting operation. Frequently the unavailability of labor and/or the ever increasing cost of labor has created a substantial financial hardship for those engaged in agricultural operations of this type.
A number of machines have consequently been proposed for the purpose of automating transplanting procedures so as to reduce the need for the frequently unavailable and expensive labor. However, the previously proposed machines have suffered from a number of drawbacks such as being overly complicated and consequently expensive to manufacture and maintain. Additionally, the functional results provided by many of the prior machines have not been satisfactory in that they have not provided an accurate foolproof deposit of the seedling plants in the furrow and have in many instances fatally damaged the seedlings in the handling process prior to and during transplantation. Also, many of the prior known devices are capable of usage with only one type of plant and cannot accommodate plants of varying sizes or provide adjustable integral spacing of the plants in the furrow as is frequently required by diverse agricultural operations.
Therefore, it is the primary object of this invention to provide a new and improved seedling transplanter.
Achievement of the foregoing object is enabled by the preferred embodiment which comprises a tractor-towed trailer device having rearwardly positioned canted wheels in front of which a furrow forming plow is mounted on the frame of the device. A vertical turret supporting shaft is driven by a chain drive power take-off from the canted rear wheels and supports a rotary turret at its upper end with the turret including a plurality of conical shaped openable clam shell type cups equidistantly spaced about its periphery for receiving individual seedlings. Rotation of the turret causes cam follower means on each of the clam shell cups to be actuated by an adjustable cam to open the cups to drop the individual seedlings into a vertically extending plant tube. The plant tube opens at its lower end immediately rearward of the furrow forming plow with an oscillating pusher foot engaging the seedling as it is deposited in the furrow to push it rearwardly in a vertical orientation to a position where the canted wheels close the furrow over the root clump of the seedling as the device is progressed forwardly by the towing vehicle.
A better understanding of the preferred embodiment will be achieved when the following detailed description is considered in conjunction with the appended drawings in which like numerals are used for like parts throughout the different figures.